Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn has encouraged competition at every position across the roster, and that includes the kicker.
The Commanders claimed veteran Riley Patterson after the Jacksonville Jaguars released him on Monday. He will be paired with Ramiz Ahmed, who has been with the team since the offseason workout program, and compete for the privilege to be Washington's kicker for Week 1 when the team plays the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"We're just going to not back off of the competing in every spot," Quinn said. "We've been pleased with what we've seen so far with Miz [Ahmed], but as part of this competition that's also part of the job and what goes into it."
Patterson, an undrafted free agent from Memphis, has spent time with the Detroit Lions, Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots. He started the 2023 season with the Lions -- his second stint with the team -- but was waived and signed by the Browns on Christmas Day. He hit 88.9% of his field goals in 2023, including all 11 of his kicks between 30-39 yards, and had a long of 52 yards.
For his career, Patterson is 88.1% on field goal kicks and 95.9% of his extra points. He has three field goals of 50-plus yards over the past three seasons.
It has been long expected that Washington, which let last season's kicker Joey Slye walk in free agency, would bring in more competition for Ahmed, a kicker with experience in NFL, USFL and UFL. His only game experience game with the Green Bay Packers in 2022, when he had six kickoffs but zero field goals or extra points. At UNLV, Ahmed hit 15 of his 20 field goals during his senior year.
Ahmed's only kick in a game on any professional level came when he was with the Pittsburgh Maulers in 2022. He made a 61-yards field goal against the New Jersey Generals -- the longest in USFL history.
Patterson and Ahmed have already begun competing to be the Commanders' regular season kicker. On Thursday, both players attempted field goals from 27, 33, 37, 47 and 53 yards and were successful on all five.
Quinn said the competition will take "a while" to work itself out, and he will look at several factors before making a decision. One such area will be how each player handles the new kickoff structure and whether they can put the ball in the landing zone with different types of kicks.
Still, Quinn admitted the position itself is more binary than others, meaning that whether a kicker can send a ball through the uprights is the top priority. But Quinn also wants to see another important trait for the position: consistency.
"Over and over, same kick, same way, same style where the 35-yarder and the 55-yarder, the approach is the same, the mindset's the same to go get it."
Quinn said both Patterson and Ahmed will get an equal opportunity to show what they can do.
"We're looking forward to seeing how that plays out as well. Riley's got some experience and like I said, let's put these guys together. Both will kick on the same days, there won't be any alternating as we're going through it."
